Three in five don't think musicians should profit from downloads

Comments

• I'm saddened by that. It's not exactly expensive to buy a song from iTunes. I can only imagine that what I'm reading there is the result of years on non-availability of value-for-money, legal, DRM-free, digital downloads. Basically, people got sick of waiting for the music industry to do the right thing and found an alternative. Same is happening with films now too.
  
  Of course, the price has to be right for it to work: 79p for a song from iTunes is good, but an album should be cheaper than the sum of the tracks (I know it sometimes is). Same goes for films, the price has to match the value and given that for many people the choice lies not between legal download and DVD, but between legal download and illegal download, then the value is very low. It should cost no more than £1 for a movie rental and about £4 max to buy a digital download.
  
  I for one am happy to buy my music from iTunes because it is reasonably priced and I consider it a mark of support if not for the artist themselves, at least for the music company for supporting both the artist and reasonably-priced legal downloads. I feel I'm supporting the industry for doing the right thing at last, though I know the artists themselves aren't making as much money as they should. Which takes us to the point of this article: I can sort of understand if some people take the attitude that the likes of U2 have made enough money already, but I don't agree with it and as for newer bands, then surely they have more right to profit than their record companies.
  
  For movies I will generally buy a DVD, because I want the full quality original material and presentation packaging to display.
  
  You'll notice now the price of DVDs in general is still high for new releases, but after a few months they are very cheap... £3 or £4 for a film that was released on DVD just 3 months ago is not unusual. This is good, and I'm quite sure this new pricing structure has far less to do with illegal downloads than with the advent of Blu-ray. We saw the same thing happen with the price of videos when DVDs became popular.
  
  Basically, it's all about value. When free and unrestricted is readily available and not bad quality, then legal has to be cheap, very good quality and unrestricted. Since we're getting that now at last, I'm really disappointed that so many people take the attitude described in this article: it's not right. Granted, this does indicate that the industry has been too late and maybe now will have to consider giving away downloads for free and making their money from concerts etc. Posted by DJC, UK
• It's as thought the public thinks that most musicians are living in mansions and can afford to give their product away. It also reveals their lack of knowledge of what it takes to get music to a deliverable state - the whole raft of people from songwriters producers to sleeve designers who need to get paid in order to arrive at a finished product. It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for record companies, which is something that I thought I would never say. The freetard argument that bands will have to make money from gigs and T shirts is completely unproven - and it ignores how everyone else in the production process will get paid. Songwriters especially have no revenue stream at all. Posted by dillardandclark, UK
• @dillardandclark. It is completely wrong. Musicians already get paid nothing compared to the cost of a CD while labels make lots of profits. You dont understand that the internet is killing the intermediate, the labels. You dont understand that you can now produce quality content with just a computer. There is nothing wrong with sharing music, it's just information after all and information wants to flow. Do I have to pay for every 010...0110 I download? that is stupid. It is also completely wrong that you cannot make money by enabling sharing. Copyrights will die, get over it. Posted by zelrik, Canada
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